New Mexico’s 2025–26 season was one of the great coaching jobs in recent college basketball memory — and it ended with a five-year contract. Eric Olen arrived in Albuquerque on March 30, 2025, to find a program with zero returning players, zero returning coaches and zero returning staff. One of just three teams in the nation with nothing back, the Lobos responded with a 26–11 record, a third-place Mountain West finish at 13–7, and a run to the semifinals of the NIT. The 26 wins were the second-most ever by a first-year Lobo coach, and the four postseason wins — one in the Mountain West Tournament, three in the NIT — were the most ever by a Lobo coach in his debut season.
The numbers behind it were historic. The 2025–26 Lobos scored a school-record 3,004 points and finished the season ranked in the top 50 in both the NET and KenPom — a team built entirely from transfers and freshmen, playing together for the first time, that became one of the country’s most entertaining watches. They started 9–2 in nonconference play, including wins over Santa Clara and at VCU, and as a top seed with a home regional in the 2026 NIT they reeled off victories over Sam Houston, George Washington and Saint Joseph’s to reach the Final Four in Indianapolis, where they fell to Tulsa in the semifinals.
The breakout star was Jake Hall, the Mountain West Freshman of the Year. Hall became just the third freshman in conference history to earn First Team All–Mountain West honors, led the team at 16.4 points a game, and set the UNM single-season record with 117 three-pointers — the first freshman in Mountain West history to score over 600 points. He wasn’t alone: forward Tomislav Buljan earned Second Team All–Mountain West after leading the conference in rebounding (10.3 per game) and double-doubles (17). For the first time in program history, three freshmen averaged double figures. Olen didn’t just rebuild — he restocked.
The school noticed. In May 2026, UNM announced a new five-year contract keeping Olen in Albuquerque through the 2030–31 season, with raises built into the back end, retention bonuses and increased investment in NIL and staff retention — a raise in average annual salary to about $1.45 million. Vice President and Director of Athletics Ryan Berryman called it exactly what it was: reward for a season that shouldn’t have been possible. “Since his arrival on campus, he has worked tirelessly to enhance UNM’s reputation as a basketball power in the West,” Berryman said.
Olen’s résumé explains the confidence. He came from UC San Diego, where he was the program’s all-time winningest coach over 12 seasons, transforming the Tritons from a Division II power into a Division I program that reached the 2025 NCAA Tournament in its first year of eligibility, going 30–5. He’s done the impossible rebuild before — and in Albuquerque, the sequel was better than the original.
The Pit makes everything louder. Officially The Pit — Powered by Nusenda, the 15,411-seat arena has been one of college basketball’s great home courts since 1966, a sunken bowl dug 37 feet below grade that traps sound and intimidates visitors. At 5,312 feet of elevation it’s one of the highest major venues in the sport, and the sea of red that fills it on winter nights is as passionate a fan base as exists in the West. Olen walked the ramp onto that floor for the first time in 2025; the crowd adopted him within weeks.
The Pit’s history is the program’s identity. The modern golden age ran through the 2000s and 2010s under Steve Alford — yes, the same Alford now at Nevada — who took the Lobos to four NCAA Tournaments and three straight Mountain West titles from 2009 to 2014, with the 2012–13 team peaking at No. 2 in the national rankings. The Ritchie McKay and Dave Bliss years before it, the Bob King era that won the 1964–65 WAC title, the Norm Ellenberger Lobos of the 1970s that stacked up 20-win seasons — every generation has had its Pit moment.
The most recent one before Olen came under Richard Pitino. Hired in 2021 after the Paul Weir years bottomed out, Pitino went 88–49 in four seasons, delivered back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, and in 2024–25 produced one of the great Lobo teams: 27–8, a 17–3 Mountain West mark, the regular-season title, and a run to the NCAA second round behind Mountain West Player of the Year Donovan Dent. When Pitino left for Xavier in March 2025, the roster emptied overnight — every player transferred or ran out of eligibility — and the job looked like a teardown. Olen made it a coronation instead.
The Rio Grande Rivalry gives it all an edge. New Mexico and New Mexico State — separated by 225 miles of desert interstate — have been playing since 1904, and the basketball series remains one of the West’s most underrated grudge matches. The Lobos have owned it in recent years, but the games are never polite, and both fan bases circle the dates.
Entering 2026–27, the foundation is set: Hall, Uriah Tenette, Chris Howell and the entire coaching staff return, and the Pit will be packed for a team that’s done proving it belongs. One year ago, Lobo basketball was an empty roster and a new coach with a crazy idea. Now it’s the model for how to rebuild in the portal era — and the rest of the Mountain West is on notice.